Posted on 12/15/2005 2:28:48 PM PST by ncountylee
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The City Council took action Thursday that could delay FEMA trailers for hurricane evacuees, citing plans to place the makeshift homes in some locations unsuitable for such housing.
The council voted unanimously to override Mayor Ray Nagin's veto of an ordinance giving council members the power to block temporary trailer parks in their districts.
Nagin said before Thursday's council meeting the ordinance could delay trailers for evacuees from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But council members said FEMA wanted to establish trailer parks in historic areas and playgrounds unsuitable for such development.
"There are alternative sites we have given to the administration so that we could work together," said Council member Renee Gill Pratt.
Nagin was in Washington and unavailable for comment. "He hopes to continue to work with the City Council to bring New Orleanians home," said Tammy Frazier of Nagin's press office.
James McIntyre, a FEMA spokesman in Baton Rouge, said it's likely the ordinance would delay or stop some trailer park plans, but he wouldn't speculate on how many. "We can only place the units where local officials and the state approve," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
They don't seem to want to help with the recovery.
NIMBY thought patterns strike once again.
At-large councilman Oliver Thomas held up enlarged images of several New Orleans areas, including land that once was home to low-income housing projects since torn down. Those lots already have sewer, water and electrical service.
"You don't have to take away a park — the infrastructure's already there," Thomas said, adding that the lands are federally controlled.
Donna White, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said HUD is negotiating with FEMA over use of the land, but did not know how many trailers might eventually be placed on the land in question, which includes the former C.J. Pete and Desire housing developments.
FEMA is installing or has plans to install 22,500 trailers for returning evacuees in New Orleans — either at individual home sites where repairs are under way or at makeshift trailer parks on large tracts of land. Public opposition has arisen, however, over some of the proposed locations, particularly the use of some neighborhood parks and playgrounds.
Already, public opposition has led to the halt of work on a trailer park at a playground in the Lower Garden District, a once-blighted neighborhood now full of renovated 19th century homes.
The ordinance was sponsored by council member Cynthia Hedge-Morrell, who represents the hard-hit Ninth Ward. It was designed to make it legal for trailers or mobile homes placed on individual lots to extend over sidewalks.
But the council added an amendment by Jacquelyn Clarkson saying trailer parks would be allowed only with written approval of the council member in the affected district.
"We have children home, playing on playgrounds," said Clarkson, whose district includes the French Quarter and neighborhoods on the west bank of the Mississippi River that received the least damage from Katrina.
Kind of a "not in my back-yard" type of mentality. I'm not defending these folks but would you want a trailer park full of evacuees living on your street? I would not.
Residental NOLA has for decades been a trailer park in drag, anyway.....whats the problem?
If they were my neighbors, sure. All NO people.
The unmitigated gall of these people is beyond belief!!! They demand that the rest of the country pony up to pay for the historic screw-up and when the gov't does try to help they stand in the way because they don't want FEMA trailers in cuty parks??? Someone needs to take these a-holes to the woodshed, very loudly and very publicly.
Just a beautiful example of the gross incompetence and corruption of a typical liberal government...everything they touch turns to...oh, forget it.
And they're wondering why the rest of us are decreasingly interested in paying to rebuild their city?
Would the people who live in these trailers be required to work and pay rent? If not, they're nothing but replacements for the Projects. I wouldn't want a Project on my playground either.
Do you ever get the impression they are all working together against the residents?
Huh? I thought the trailers were for temporary housing for people involved in the rebuilding effort? Who has time to lolligag around in parks and playgrounds?
-PJ
This must make too much sense to somone.
??
LVM
"they stand in the way because they don't want FEMA trailers in cuty parks???"
That's kind of where tourists hang out. Tourists bring money to NO, or at least they used to. New Orleans will never recover without that income. It's not the trailers themselves, I'll bet, but the people who would be residing in those trailers. Prior to Katrina, there were places you just did not go in New Orleans if you valued your life. The people that would be placed in these parks come from those places. I used to go to New Orleans all the time. I live 150 miles from there. Planting a trailer park full of God-knows-who in the places tourists usually go does not make me want to go back, not in the least.
This is a no-win situation.
This is probably going to wind up in one of Jeff Foxworthys comedy acts.
"If you lived in the hood would you want to be surrounded by white trash?" There are endless versions of this. I can't wait.
It appears every council person wants a little payola before allowing any benifits to flow to the people.
I think the mayor deserves a doublewide in front of his Dallas home!
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